Michael Chandler was the first UFC fighter to rep Paramount after the promotion’s $7.7B deal.
The UFC’s broadcast deal with ESPN comes to a close at the end of this year. A new era begins in 2026 as Paramount wins the battle for the UFC’s broadcast rights, taking them away from ESPN+ and the pricey pay-per-view model that has been in place for decades, long before ESPN arrived in 2019.
‘Notorious’ PPV superstar Conor McGregor said ‘long live the Irish king’ following the news on Monday.
McGregor was initially scheduled to meet Michael Chandler on PPV last summer at UFC 303, but the bout fell through due to a toe injury for McGregor.
Chandler gave his two cents on the new Paramount deal shortly after his rival.
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Michael Chandler expected UFC to go to Netflix or YouTube TV
A lot of fans were surprised to see Chandler in a Paramount t-shirt before everyone else; others were not, as Chandler is considered a ‘company man’ for the UFC and the veteran has fought on Paramount before when he was fighting for Bellator MMA.
“The ultimate company man,” one fan said of Chandler wearing a Paramount-Gucci shirt (it reads Gucci on the back of it).
Chandler spoke out on the new UFC-Paramount deal on his YouTube channel.
“I was extremely surprised this morning when I saw the news being broke that it was Paramount,” Chandler said.
“I didn’t even think Paramount was on the table,” Chandler admitted.
“I never even really thought about Paramount.
“There was a lot of speculation that we were going to end up on Netflix. Makes a lot of sense. TKO Group, WWE… But it also does make sense to spread your products across multiple different streaming platforms.
“I honestly thought we were going to end up on Netflix or maybe a YouTube TV, Prime Video,” Chandler added.
“Obviously with the way the landscape looks right now, there are a million different streaming platforms. Everything has moved to it…”
Joe Rogan liked the idea of UFC staying with ESPN
The UFC’s broadcast deal with ESPN began in 2019 and runs out at the end of this year.
While the partnership has been far from perfect, especially with today’s age of piracy as a result of the pay-per-view model and ESPN+’s annual/monthly price-tag, the sport has grown significantly in recent years.
Joe Rogan said he liked ESPN+ for how accessible it was to watch fights on the app as well as its media coverage.
“One of the things that we benefit from is ESPN, not just as the host of the fights, but also covering the fights,” the UFC commentator said weeks ago on The Joe Rogan Experience.
“All the additional coverage, all the SportsCenter talk, all the different shows that they have on ESPN+, the post-fight shows… Those are all huge,”
“The breakdowns, people love that s—. They love the pre-fight breakdowns. Alan Jouban, Rashad Evans…”
At the time, Rogan said he had hoped the UFC would stay with ESPN.
“I love ESPN. I like getting it that way off the app. It’s easy,” Rogan added.